9/11/01 + 10 years = one class of fifth graders and a picture book

My current students were little babies or their mothers were in their third trimester of pregnancy with them when the world was rocked by the events of September 11, 2001.  I've had many discussions with students in the years since that day, and on Monday, I'll be reading my class a book that was published in 2002 but that I've only recently come across.

The book is Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey and it's written and illustrated by the very creative Maira Kalman.

The book has mostly been well-received but there are a few negative reviews on Amazon, mostly by parents who felt that they were blindsided by the illustrations that show the planes flying towards the World Trade Center towers and the buildings exploding.  My first thought was to wonder how these parents started to read a book to their child without at least flipping through it first.

There are no gruesome illustrations and no details about the sad events beyond a few short sentences that say that, "many people were hurt; many lives were lost; the city had been attacked; everyone was terrified."  That is the extent of the focus on the violence.  The story goes on to tell about how people came together to help and how people were brave.  And how the fireboat, that had been left for scrap but had been saved by a group of people who restored it, was called into service that day and in the days that followed.

In the end, this is a very uplifting and hopeful story.  And that's why I'll be sharing it with my fifth graders on Monday morning.